Hong Kong’s POC Pharma raises $10.3 million in Series A funding

POC Pharma, a B2B service SaaS, raised a $10.3-million Series A funding round led by Alven, along with co-investment from seed investors Picus Capital, FEBE Ventures, and FJ Labs who have doubled down their investments.

The funds will be used to accelerate the roll-out of its digital go-to-market solutions for the Pharmaceutical Industry in emerging countries, in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

Pharmaceutical companies employ hundreds of thousands of sales representatives in emerging countries to reach and engage with their customers and supply retail pharmacies.

India alone accounted for no less than “350,000 representatives in 2020” according to McKinsey. Such a huge number proves, in particular, that face-to-face interactions with no data-driven decision infrastructure are still the norm.

“This traditional go-to-market model is hurting everyone. Pharma companies spend on average 30% of their revenues on GTM to reach a very small proportion of the 3 million pharmacies in emerging markets” said Thomas Miklavec, founder and CEO of POC Pharma. “And beyond what it costs, it affects product availability and patients’ treatments”.

About 23% of prescriptions are not delivered in emerging markets due to product unavailability, according to Sanisphere.

That’s precisely the problem POC Pharma is tackling. Using its SaaS, data and network, POC Pharma helps pharmaceutical companies structure their data and connect all the stakeholders along the value chain. “That way, we unlock potential for data leverage, and create avenues for integrated and digitalized processes” says Miklavec, “74% of healthcare providers in Vietnam expect interactions with Pharma companies combining face-to-face and digital. However, our clients still massively rely on sales reps visiting customers”.

POC Pharma has already onboarded a dozen of global and regional pharmaceutical companies in Southeast Asia, with proven impact on performance: “Teams using POC Pharma solutions have increased their market share by 24%”. The company is now deploying its solutions in more geographies, with a hub opened in Dubai and new clients in South Asia and Africa.